Never Alone
by thesilentlamb
Summary: Quite an angsty one shot.


**This wasn't going to be angsty…. but that was where it ended up! I think it needs more work but thought I'd post it now to see what people think. I may rewrite if I get some good critiques.**

**I don't own Bones, or Booth for that matter (more's the pity).**

The first time they spent the night together was after yet another of Epps had reared his ugly head again. Yet another of his victims had turned up, and with her body yet another clue leading to yet another undiscovered burial site. It seemed as though the serial killer was taunting them from beyond the grave and it had shaken even the most unshakeable of the squints as they remembered the games Epps had played with them in the past. Booth and Brennan finished the paperwork at Brennan's apartment and neither acknowledged that they were sitting closer together than they normally did; each seeking the comfort of the other as they silently remembered what Epps had put them through. Brennan couldn't help but dwell on the image of Epps in her apartment; Booth for his part kept turning the moment Epps had taken his body count to 50 over and over in his head. Somehow, unlike the other killers they had put behind bars, Epps had had a way of getting under the skin.

Booth glanced at the clock and noted the time; he stretched and started to get up. Brennan started at his movement and launched into an awkward and lengthy explanation of how she had noticed that humans who knew each other well often supported each other after a particularly unsettling or unpleasant experience, and while she didn't _personally _understand it, if Booth felt that he needed some company, or didn't want to be alone, or didn't want to go home _right now, _he should feel that he could stay and she would sit with him, and Booth cut her off before she could keep rambling.

"If you want me to stay here Bones, it's ok. I'll stay."

That first time they went to sleep on opposite sides of the bed; but at every tiny noise, creak and rustle in the apartment the sleeping partners shifted closer together. The fact that they'd woken up spooned together with Booth's arm tightly round Brennan's waist was never mentioned in conversation. Brennan made coffee in the morning, Booth drove home to change and they went to work as though nothing untoward had happened.

Both tried their best to ignore their need to have someone to hold and seek comfort in, but it couldn't last. After a few weeks, the clue was cracked, Epps' next victim was found, and the game seemed never ending. The victim had not been killed long ago, and now it was clear that Epps had had another accomplice outside, someone who was still free and taking lives and who in all likelihood was aware of their involvement in the case. Suddenly it became a necessity to not be alone. The mere thought of spending the evenings alone in her apartment made the hairs on Brennan's neck stand on end; the mere thought of leaving her there alone made Booth unable to concentrate on anything but the driving need to protect her. It became part of their routine; after finishing work, they would head back to one of their apartments, eat some dinner, drink some beer, finish up on paperwork and then go to bed together, waking up in each other's arms. It was enough, for now.

The breaking point came when the arrest was finally made. They had tracked down the accomplice and surprised him early in the morning at his apartment. When the place was searched Booth had found pictures– _hundreds_ of pictures – of Brennan. At work, in the supermarket, through the windows of her apartment. Booth had been visibly shaken throughout the interrogation and afterward Brennan took him home with her. They were getting changed for bed, as they always did, on opposite sides of the bed with their backs turned on each other and were wearing only their underwear when Booth suddenly turned and tugged Brennan to him, clutching her against his bare chest, his tears leaking into her hair. They climbed under the covers and Brennan didn't complain when for the first time he pulled her to him before he fell asleep. He caught hold of her tightly and tucked her head into the crook of his neck, and the feel of her against him seemed to calm him quicker than anything else. Neither acknowledged it, but at that moment there was an unspoken agreement that they would never spend the nights alone again.

**Opinions please?**


End file.
